Suggested activities

f Explain the meaning of the following sentences in English:

1 The light dawned.

2 The CIA and DEA rushed to beat each other to the answers.

3 It creates serious inaccuracies in US data on international currency flow.

4 Information in our possession has been extremely limited.

5 But no one waited for foreign-based agents to check in.

6Write out the words or sentences from the text which mean that:

1 The US had ignored drug dealing for rather a long time.

2 Once the US became aware of this problem they took urgent measures.

3 It was an unprecedented operation.

h Sum up what instructions were sent from the DEA.

i Answer the following questions:

Skim and scan:

Read the text quickly and answer the following question:

Does the text speak on the responses of the agents or of the senior agent?

Text 2

Arriving in Hong Kong after a first stop in Thailand, the agent wrote that he had found Bangkok «indeed interesting – in terms of drug money ending up there (as was the conclusion of Schoolboy) it really becomes a black hole». He was referring to Operation Schoolboy, the DEA intelligence program aimed at the Hong Kong-based Chinese banking system. The agent found that DEA's Bangkok office, «with nearly 20 agents and their CIs, has done zero» to study the movement of drug money and «where it goes once it's transferred there from Hong Kong and Singapore».

Much of Asia's drug profits were generated, he said, by marijuana. «When the Thais seize marijuana, they store it in military bases. Major American brokers are actually now residing in Bangkok, and a lot of the stuff is coming right out of these military bases».

The DEA intelligence agent said, «The European connection, especially France and the Netherlands in the financial-drug network, is most interesting. Might even warrant a trip there.» Referring to the CIA, he said «the current race going on between us and our cousins over at Langley to produce a report on this subject does not allow a lot of time».

What he had seen so far in Asia convinced the agent «there's a 'big picture' here involving all the major banking havens. There are so many more answers to how the money moves and where it ends up in the cocaine and marijuana traffic using Panama and the Caymans, etc., than will ever be available here».

Vocabulary notes